Blackburn have confirmed former defender Henning Berg as their new manager.

Berg won the Premier League title as a player with Rovers in 1995 and the 43-year-old will succeed Steve Kean, who resigned to end a troubled spell as manager of the npower Championship side a month ago.

Amid heavy speculation on Wednesday afternoon, Rovers issued a press release stating they would unveil their new manager at Ewood Park on Thursday morning, before confirming Berg as the man in question on their official Twitter feed.

"Blackburn can confirm that Henning Berg has accepted the role of manager," a statement on the club's official Twitter page read.

Berg, who made 297 appearances across two spells as a player with Rovers, will take on his first coaching assignment in English football following spells leading Lyn Oslo and Lillestrom in his native Norway.

Rovers managing director Derek Shaw told Press Association Sport on Wednesday that the former Norway defender became the board's number one choice on the back of an impressive interview.

"He interviewed well and he moved straight to the top of our list," said the ex-Preston chairman.

Berg, who works as a television pundit for Norwegian broadcaster TV 2 Sporten, was an outspoken critic of owners Venky's this summer. In a widely referenced quote that he appears set to hear plenty about in the coming days, Berg said of the top job at Rovers: "There are no real managers with credibility who would accept a job like that."

Wayne Wild, co-chairman of the Rovers Trust - a group committed to fan ownership of Blackburn - believes the club's concluded pursuit of a former player may be misguided.

"I think the protracted process underlines that there are still problems at board level and senior management level at Blackburn Rovers," Wild told Press Association Sport. "It seems to be more important to give the fans an ex-player's name rather than getting somebody who would be more expensive and more experienced."